Saturday, September 30, 2006

X06 Broadcast Media Session

Here is a clip from the exclusive broadcast media session that took place immediately after the main X06 event. I ask Microsoft executive Peter Moore and director Peter Jackson each a question, about a possible price drop for the Xbox360 and about the upcoming Halo games, respectively. This footage was shot by a Microsoft camera team for German television station RTL II, the station I work for.

22 comments:

Hmmm... What Shane Kim said about expanding the market for "interactive entertainment" sounded an awful lot like what Nintendo's been saying ever since the Wiimote was revealed. More power to them, though.

On a different note, there is a Wii advertisement on a British Telecom webpage dedicated exclusively to PS3. Here´s a snapshot and here is the page. It´s still live at time of posting. Kudos to GoNintendo for digging this up.

microsoft won't lower their price before xmas. it just doesn't make sense... they're already substantially lower than the ps3, and like peter said in the interview, they offer quite a bang for the buck on every level. however, this isn't my only reasoning.

microsoft needs wii. why do you think peter moore is all, "wii60 LOL"? wii represents to microsoft the perfect "competitor". they feel that a "hardcore gamer" will buy both wii and 360, and the other people buying wii would never have bought a 360 anyway. microsoft knows what japan means to the world of videogaming... but they also know that they can't win japan on their own. since sony is their only *real* competitor, they'll want to see wii become a huge success in japan when compared to ps3, akin to the ds vs psp battle. microsoft also knows that there is a WORLD of difference between what the 360 can do, and what the wii can do. as long as a "360" or a "ps3" exist, wii can never be the paramount of video games. wii can never be the only choice because of it's hardware "limitations" in comparison to the other systems.

last year, most developers had seemed to reach the *brink* of just forgetting about nintendo altogether. straight up. they're ready to drop nintendo... but wait! what's this? the DS? selling like fuckin hotcakes? okay... maybe we give these guys *one more chance*.

wii needs substantial marketshare QUICKLY if they expect developers to believe that they can make more money by creating new games with weird controls and lesser graphics than they could making the next typical fps for 360.

microsoft will be pissed if sony wins this gen. PISSED. they don't want to look back and say "fuck, we screwed up... should've let wii just do it's thing for a while longer."

I will definitely buy Zelda and Red Steel for launch.After that, the usual suspects.Metroid, SMG of course, maybe even Far Cry and Cod 3 if they polish them up a bit.I am not so sure about Elebits however. Its a little kiddy from the looks of it but still interesting gameplaywise.I guess I will probably end up getting Elebits at some point too.

I must confess that I'm still disappointed to an extant with the overall situation of Nintendo and its line up.

But you know guys, maybe I was just expecting too much from the (BIG)N.I was really expecting them to make a 180 degree turn on Gamecube in terms of software philosophy.I had high hopes that they would finally make some big deals with 3rd parties and up their in house productions .I thought Miyamoto would surprise me with a new franchise a new hero, something completly different from what I ve come to expect from Ninty.But you know, you can't have everything.When I contemplate, the situation isn't that bad.Zelda will be great.The problem is, you know you talk so much about games but in reality you just tend to forget how its really like expiriencing games.I think when I finally boot up Zelda on my new, shiny Wii all the concerns will vanish once and for all.People who spend most of their time making predictions,talking trash, and blustering about the industry will eventually be out of touch with gaming I'm afraid to say.

To be honest,I bitched about a lot of things since the unveiling of Wii, for sure. But anyway, I reached a point where I'm realizing that it doesn't pay. Bitching simply doesn't pay.It just pisses people off. Thats it.

I was stuck on Wii bitching.In fact, I think there has never been a human being out there who bitched about Wii as much as I did.And I'm sorry for that.

But see it was never like I hated Nintendo or anything, it was really just the bitterness concerning some Nintendo related decisions and issues that made me pull heat over nothing.But its all good now. I am starting to come to terms with Wii again. I am taking Wii for what it is : a small, solid, clever and unconstrained console that is not trying too hard to be the mack. I'm fine with that.

The Wii will have its moments granted. Maybe it will take some time, but it will have its moments.

I still think a title like Bioshock would have been the perfect combo with the Wii-mote but it doesn't matter. Red Steel is no slouch either.I hope Nintendo will convince 3rd parties that their system has potential, and that they can contribute to exploit that potential to a greater extent, this time around.Lets not kid ourselves there. The 3rd party situation could and should be better.Some massive exclusive 3rd party titles would be a blessing for Wii.

"As a gamer, I want Wii to sell for $200 for a number of reasons. It has about one tenth the processing prowess and one fifth the RAM of, say Xbox 360, and it also lacks a true hard drive. It doesn't play DVDs. It doesn't play music CDs. Yes, you read that correctly and yes, it's true. In fact, from many ways, it could be called a turbo-charged GameCube. So why the $249 price point?"

" As a gamer, I want Wii to sell for $200 for a number of reasons. It has about one tenth the processing prowess and one fifth the RAM of, say Xbox 360, and it also lacks a true hard drive. It doesn't play DVDs. It doesn't play music CDs. Yes, you read that correctly and yes, it's true. In fact, from many ways, it could be called a turbo-charged GameCube. So why the $249 price point?"

These words hurt. One tenth? One fifth? I thought Nintendo didnt disclose specs. What about Hollywood? ATI should make all the difference. Matt C. is exaggerating.Thats all. Wii spares a lot of rendering power for lack of HD. SMG prooves that.SMG is never one tenth 360 even if such a comparison sounds utterly stupid.

SMG prooves that.SMG is never one tenth 360 even if such a comparison sounds utterly stupid.

I totally agree. Comparing specs in the console sector is futile. For example, having roughly half the Xbox specs, GameCube easily looked on par with that console.

Matt C. is exaggerating.

Again, totally agreed. His only criticisms are:

I believe Wii is $50 too expensive and three weeks too late.

Seriously, $50 isn´t that much - and three weeks is not much of a lag, either. I myself was hoping for a $199 / €199 price tag - but it´s not as if I would not gladly dig up an extra fifty.

But these words have been quoted out of context, anyway. Let´s put this into perspective and look at some other quotes from Matt, taken from the same post on his blog:

Nintendo is a business, and selling Wii for $249 through the holiday is a smart business move. As much as I'd prefer it were cheaper, even I recognize that. The Big N will ship four million units through December and the hardcore crowd will devour the supply in no time. Nintendo's leaders have said that Wii will turn a profit from the start, which is something that neither Microsoft nor Sony could hope to do with their respective consoles. (...)

It's not as though I believe Nintendo has made some crippling mistake. In truth, I think Wii is going to perform phenomenally this holiday. I also believe that it has a solid chance of surprising everybody and gaining much more market share than anticipated, particularly in Japan. Unlike GameCube, I think Wii has a chance for the number one spot.

It´s just another case of a troll quoting the sentence that was most critical of Nintendo´s strategy completely out of context. Why else did he not post a link?

As far as pricing is concerend, I am critical, too. But keeping things in perspective, it´s not as if Wii will sell far worse because of the price tag of $250 / €250. Let´s keep things in perspective.